La France Electorale
- Title:
- La France Electorale
- Alternate Title:
- La France Electorale
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Frison, Gustave
- Date:
- 1889
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2462.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2462_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1870 - 1899
- Subject:
- Allegorical
Disaster/Health/Environment
Other War & Peace
Pictorial
Politics & Government
Satirical - Measurement:
- 33 x 28 on page 48 x 32 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This satirical map celebrates the final election defeat of the controversial French general and populist politician Georges Boulanger in September 1889. He is unceremoniously "booted out" by feet of all kinds from one end of France to the other.
Boulanger was a dashing, charismatic and ambitious figure who first gained recognition and popularity from his army service. See generally Seager 1969; Fuller 2012, 28-39. Beginning in 1886, he assembled an unlikely coalition of political supporters ranging from socialists and other radicals on the left to royalists and other conservatives on the right. His supporters shared, to varying degrees, the goals of revenge against the Germans for the Franco-Prussian War ("revanchism") and a dramatic restriction of the power of the French parliament - what the New York Times editorialized as "The New Caesarism" (March 20, 1889, p.4).
Following a string of victories by his supporters in the 1888 parliamentary elections, he ran in the January 1889 elections as a candidate for Deputy for Paris and won in a landslide. On the night of his victory, many in his coalition hoped - and many others in France and beyond feared - that Boulanger was planning to lead a coup d'etat and establish an authoritarian government.
Instead, Boulanger appeared to wait for the opportunity to seek power lawfully in the next general election. But after he proclaimed his goal as a "non-parliamentary republic" (New York Times, March 18, 1889, p.1), the government moved against the "Ligue des Patriotes" that supported him and determined to bring formal charges against Boulanger himself for conspiracy and attempts to overthrow the state. Alerted in advance of the coming prosecution, Boulanger fled to Brussels, leaving "His Adherents Very Much Displeased" (ibid., April 4, 1889, p.1) by his reluctance to stand and fight.
In July he was tried and convicted in absentia, along with two of his "accomplices," and sentenced to be "deported to a fortified place." Ibid., August 15, 1889, p.5. Finding himself unwelcome in Brussels, Boulanger moved to London and never returned to France. The generally poor performance of his remaining supporters in the parliamentary elections at the end of September demonstrated that "the ingenious and desperate politicians who have been backing Boulanger . . . have lost what they tried to get." Ibid., September 24, 1889.
The caricaturist Gustave Frison (b. 1850) studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and had an important hand in many of the major French satirical publications in the last quarter of the 19th century. He was the founder, editor-in-chief and principal artist of the weekly Le Troupier, which was published from October 1887 to February 1892. He played similar roles in a number of other satirical periodicals, including Le Musée Comique, Le Bossu, La Galerie Comique, Le Monde Plaisant, and Le Monde Amusant.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Source:
- Le Troupier, Paris, October 10, 1889
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.